Badgers and Pearls
by Stalker of Stories
Summary: Drabble one-shot thing. The Black Pearl had a captain long before Jack Sparrow ever set foot on her deck. Helga pays homage to her ship in the only way she can.


Warnings: random, doesn't make much sense, drabbly... yeah

Disclaimers: Harry Potter belongs to JKR and affliates. Pirates of the Carribean belongs to... er, I dunno. Disney I think... Any way, I am in no way affiliated with either of these franchises, I'm just a fan who had a random plot bunny nibbliing on my gray matter.

Badgers and Pearls

Lady Helga Hufflepuff sat silently beside Lady Rowena Gryffindor nee Ravenclaw. She had an unassuming look about her. Unlike most women her age, Lady Hufflepuff continued to wear her dark hair down around her shoulders even at twenty years. She was already considered an old maid, as the best years for breeding were said to be in a girl's first years of ripeness. Her yellow skirts fell to the floor, completely hiding her legs, and the top of her dress was conservative.

Rowena, conversely, had her golden tresses piled high atop her head as a sign of her state of wedlock, and wore the traditional red of the Gryffindor family. She smiled demurely at the men seated across from them in the great castle.

Lady Hufflepuff merely looked out the window, disinterested with the proceedings.

"So it's agreed then, that the Houses will have each of our family crests as the symbol," Lord Godric Gryffindor's voice barely pierced Lady Hufflepuff's mind, but she nodded. "My lady, you'll have to use your family's rather than my own..." since he was addressing Rowena, Helga stopped paying attention.

When next she was drawn into the conversation, Lady Hufflepuff noted that there were three crests sitting on the table, obviously the examples for Godric to use later. And the only one missing was her own.

Lightly exasperated – for she had far better things to be doing at this moment than talking about dividing up the students – Lady Hufflepuff conjured a copy of her crest and set it down.

The other three magical humans in the room stared a moment.

"M'lady," Salazar Slytherin now turned his gaze away from the object, "are you... certain that this will be your crest?"

Helga looked down at the sigil – a yellow background with a black badger superimposed upon it – before nodding. She wouldn't waste words on this, when she had better things to waste them on.

"Outrageous!" Rowena sniped, her piercing voice making Helga want to hit the older woman. But she wouldn't, because that didn't fit her new role, now did it? "You can't use that... _thing_ as your crest. I mean, good Lord! What will the children think to see that pirate flag flying in our halls?"

And it was indeed the flag of a pirate ship. Helga raked her eyes over it again, smiling as she did so.

Just seeing that again reminded her of the salty scent of the sea, the brazen calls of the crew. She looked at that crest on saw many things. The gold she and her men always managed to find on their excursions shown in her mind's eye, the gold that had made it so easy to buy her way into Lady-ship.

"I do not think the children will mind," Helga responded, tearing her soft brown gaze from the crest. "Now if you will excuse me." She stood and left the room, heading instead to the suite that had been granted to her as one of the creators of Hogwarts castle.

The crest was perfect after all. Yellow for gold, yellow for the hot summer sun on the ocean, yellow for pride... yes, yellow truly was the perfect color. It set fear into her enemies; yellow for the opponent's cowardice. Yellow for her loyal crew who had spilled the blood of countless foes. Yellow for her favorite bludgeoning curse that always managed to send the opponents, Vikings, Romans, and trespassers all, to the deck.

And black...

As the captain of the Pearl, Hufflepuff had a certain love for her ship. If only she hadn't had to send it to the bottom of the sea...

**Author's Note: I know, I'm weird. Basically, it occurred to me to wonder what the colors of Hufflepuff are (there's gold and rubies, silver and emeralds, bronze and blue... but what about yellow and black?) so... yeah. I was just thinking about what gems are black and I thought of the black pearl... yeah. I'm weird.**

_700 years in the future... (give or take)_

Jack Sparrow looked at the ship rising from the ocean before him and grinned. There was something about this ship... well, it would be his for the next ten years.

Pulling the somehow intact black sails to full, he couldn't help but wonder at the strange tingle.

It was almost like magic.


End file.
